About Accessible AD

Making places and spaces accessible for everyone.
01
Who we are

Accessible AD was set up in 2019 by Amal Al Hajeri and Dr Ally Dunhill. Amal has been a paraplegic since 2009 and the idea was developed when she met a mother who shared her frustration on the lack of accessible and friendly spaces for her daughter to visit and spend quality time as a child, and how this problem is effecting her daughter’s self-esteem and social development.

02
What we do

The work of Accessible AD is in support of the UAE government’s objectives in making the UAE a more inclusive space for all, further economic diversification, and improve the UAE’s position in realising the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals have adopted a theme of “leave no one behind” and Accessible AD is taking this objective seriously and seeks to support efforts in the UAE to ensure everyone is able to access and participate in all that the UAE has to offer.

03
How we do it

Businesses do not always fully understand the range of different accessibility needs for different abilities. And if they do, they sometimes implement solutions wrongly. We help them avoid making wrong decision at an early design stage, and at a later stage, when the design is built, we help them make adjustments.

Our digital channels including website and app are designed to be universally accessible for all.

Knowledge is power. We make it easier for potential customers to know about accessible businesses, what to expect when visiting the facility and the different services and opportunities available.

At Accessible AD we continuously engage and collaborate with multiple stakeholders, from both public and private sectors as well as third sector to achieve common goals.

Our Mission is to help make places and spaces accessible for all, while raising awareness of accessibility. Using technology, we provide accessible information that empowers people so that they can make an informed choice regarding which services and facilities meet their accessibility requirements.

Our vision is to be the center of expertise on accessibility and to create a future with inclusive communities that are empowering for everyone.

Equality, Dignity, Empowerment, Innovation.

Accessible AD aims to enable inclusive communities where everyone’s needs are equally considered and create a world-class lived experience for everyone. We believe that everyone should be able to access and enjoy all services and facilities with dignity and respect and that this will improve social well-being. We provide consultancy and training on accessibility to service and facility providers, to increase the number of accessible places and spaces for people disabilities and their families and friends, to access and enjoy. We also provide information on accessibility on our App, offering a convenient platform so that everyone can make informed choices regarding which services and facilities meet their accessibility requirements.
How is Accessible AD making a difference?

Businesses need to ask these questions:

Can all people access their facilities and no one is left out? Can all customers or service users access all the services and areas once in the facility?

Can they easily access information through the website app or printed materials?

Are customer care staff trained to meet all types of customers’ needs, including those customers with a disability?

What many organizations do not realize is that accessibility can unlock a huge, overlooked market share, reduce customer’s dissatisfaction, lower operational costs, and boost brand value.

There are misconceptions regarding accessibility:

  • It’s expensive to be accessible
  • There are not so many customers so it’s not worth the investments
  • People with accessibility needs are usually financially weak and cannot afford
    paying for services.
All of these were proven wrong.

Research on accessibility has found that:

  • 15% of the current worldwide population (1 billion people) lives with some form of disability – Expected to reach 1.2 billion by 2020, with a spending power of more than $6 Trillion.
  • 70% of disabilities are invisible
  • Family and friends of a person with a disability make up 45% of the world population
  • 20%+ of the global population will be over 65 by 2050 with 50% of people likely to have a disability
  • Businesses lose an average 15% of potential revenue due to inaccessibility as customers chose to leave and never book again (sharing the information about inaccessibility within their network)
  • There are around 40 Million people looking for accessible services in MENA.
According to research, individuals with disabilities tend to go out and travel in bigger groups, pay more for accessible services, stay for longer periods and more readily become loyal customers, when compared to other customers.
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